Walking in the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces.

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After the tour group left for Hong Kong we spent a couple of quiet days in Yangshuo. We explored the town, walking along the river bank and enjoying the local cafes. I was very pleased to find some book exchanges and second hand bookstores. A few happy hours were spent choosing some books to replenish my library here. We bought 20 books with us but I had read most of them (I have been rationing myself!) and English books are impossible to buy in Wuhan - unless you enjoy the classics. I enjoy reading them but not to the exclusion of everything else. Though quite expensive I bought a selection and posted them back to school.

We didn’t do the boat trip down the Li River when the rest of the tour did it, mainly because I wasn’t feeling well and we knew we would get to do it in our own time later. As the river trip is regarded as a highlight of any time spent in this area one morning we caught a local bus to a nearby river village of Xing Ping where the local people take you out on the river in tiny boats which hold a dozen people. Most of them do it illegally and are not registered and the boats are no doubt very unsafe - maintenance is not high on the list of Chinese priorities. The village was tiny and soon after we arrived we met an English couple of a similar age to us who had taken a year off to travel around the world. We all found our way to the river bank which was lined with food stalls and farmers selling produce and trips in their small metal boats. We had been followed by a farmers wife for the previous half hour and ended up ngoing out with her after a period of intense bargaining. We boarded one of the illegal boats to spend a couple of hours on the water. The boat’s engine was very noisy but nothing could detract from the inredible scenery. We spent most of the trip perched on the bow of the boat, away from the engine noise. The river was lined with tall pointed limestone peaks and rice fields. There were many large boats on the river, all tour boats from Guilin which spend the day cruising along the river, with a short stop in Yangshuo for souvenir shopping. We saw many farmers fishing in small bamboo raft like boats. Some of these boats were used to take tourists along the river (further downstream) but Nick had warned us not to go out on them as a tourist on a previous Intrepid tour had fallen off one, hit his head and drowned. They were very unstable and overturned easily.

After our overdose of spectacular scenery we headed back into the village where we wandered through the markets and ate delicious meal at a street stall restaurant - the lady just kept bringing out food, a lot of it that we hadn’t even ordered. We didn’t complain though as it was very tasty! The bill came to a grand total of 33 yuan, under AUD $6 - for the 4 of us! The remainder of the time in Yangshuo was spent quietly. We booked and managed to get the 40% discount offered to teachers on our air tickets to Kunmimg. It was the only time on our trip that we did manage to get those discounts however. We also booked a trip to Longshen which was 2 hours north of Yangshuo. We enjoyed our few days in Yangshuo as it was great to just relax and recuperate. Thankfully my cough disappeared before we left the area. The town was full of tourists, both Western as well as Chinese, and had a dynamic cafe scene, great shopping and was very pretty as well.


Longshen is an area now famous for the rice terraces, many of which are 800 meters high. The area is known as the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces. We had an early start on the trip to the terraces and had booked out of our hotel and were waiting outside it at 7am to be collected by the agent who was taking us to the bus stop. We were staying overnight at the terraces and then had booked a taxi to take us to Guilin airport to catch our flight to Kunming. The agent had to collect 3 couples who had booked the trip with her. Jerry and I plus another couple were ready but we were asked to wait for the last couple who were still asleep when we arrived at their hotel! We waited 20 minutes with no sign of them so demanded that we be taken to the bus without them. We arrived at the bus area to find the bus full of angry people who had been waiting over half an hour for us. We boarded the bus but still had to wait another 15 minutes for the couple who had overslept - but at least the rest of the people on the bus now knew it wasn’t our fault they had already lost three quarters of an hour of their day trip! Jerry and I and the couple we had spent the previous day with were the only people aboard the bus who were staying overnight. The guide on the bus was very informative and we both enjoyed speaking to her. She was shocked when she heard that our school still opened 7 days a week as she said that schools in this area are not allowed to do anymore. She told us about friends of hers in Shanghai who had just paid a fine to the Government of 20,000 yuan (around AUD $3,000) so they could have a second child. Also how recently it has become law that you must pass a driving test instead of just buying your drivers licence without even having to prove that you were able to drive. I'm sure most drivers in Guangshui bought their licences - none of them drive very well at all.

The bus company advertised that it was a 2 and a half hour trip but our bus had mechanical problems and it ended up taking over 4 hours. The first part of the trip was pretty boring but once we arrived in the area around Longshen the scenery became hilly and we passed many small villages. The bus followed a fast flowing river as it wound it's way higher into the hills. Most tours to this area go to a small town called Ping'an but we were going 12 kilometres further to another village that had just opened up to tourism. The bus was having a lot of problems with the clutch and kept slipping out of gear which was creating a very restless feeling amongst the passengers, particularly after we passed the turnoff to Ping'an and continued along a rough gravel road which was climbing quite steeply into the mountains. A couple of times the driver asked us to get out and walk up the steeper slopes. At one stage the bus stalled on a part of the road which was a repaired earth slide. He started spinning the wheels of the bus and everybody headed for the door, fearing that the ground would give away again! We could all see ourselves in the river in the valley below. We were all pleased when we arrived at the gates which led to the tiny mountain village of Dazhi - Jerry and I were thankful that we weren’t going back to Yangshuo in the bus that afternoon. At the gate we were told that we had to walk into the village which was a couple of kilometers away. We were carrying our luggage as we were leaving for Kunming after our overnight stay. We were immediately pressured by all the local women who wanted to carry our suitcases - for a fee of course. They were all arguing between themselves about how much to charge for the service and as we hate being pressured we decided to carry our own bags into the village. We lived to regret that decision as it was an easy 2 kilometres walk along the river path but then it was uphill for at least half an hour. We were staying in a guest house which was at the very top of the village and had dozens of narrow stone steps to climb to reach it. Our suitcases were only small but felt very heavy by the time we arrived at the guesthouse. The ladies had long since deserted us in favour of trying to sell their wares to the daytrippers.

The village was very traditional and our little guest house was very simple but the view was definitely worth the climb. It overlooked the whole village and across to the terraces. We were shown to our bedroom - I had the Mickey Mouse bedhead and Jerry scored the Donald Duck one. We shared the tiny bathroom and the very tempramental gas hot water system with the family. The houses were quite large and were made of wood. They all had two stories with large woodpiles underneath. There were no streets, only narrow stone footpaths. No cars could enter the village and goods were carried from the main entrance on the road either on the locals' backs or by donkeys. There was electricity though and a couple of the houses had satellite dishes, but there was no internet at all. The village had only recently been allowed to accept tourists and the road that we came on was newly constructed. Previously the villagers would have walked across the terraces to nearby villages, though now there was a irregular bus service. The women all wore traditional dress as did many of the men. The women today though wear t shirts with their heavily cross stitched and pleated skirts, made from locally woven cotton fabric which was hand dyed with indigo. In the cooler weather they wore very heavy jackets again embroidered with the tiniest cross stitches I've ever seen. It must have taken hours to make them. Around their waists they tied a finely woven and fringed pink belt. They have a tradition of not cutting their hair and it is twisted around their heads and knotted over their foreheads. They also attach their mothers hair to their hairstyles after her death, though I think they only wear the extra hair at special ceremonies. It would be very heavy otherwise. Their earlobes were stretched from the heavy silver earrings they also wore.

We spent the afternoon wandering up and down the stone steps of the terraces. Amazing scenery and so peaceful! But very hard cllimbing as many of the steps were very steep. We watched the farmers cultivating their crops and running up and down the steps. They were all much fitter then we were! We passed through many tiny groups of houses which were strung with corn cobs and chillis. Many of the houses had large wooden coffins outside. I guess it is part of their traditions to have a coffin ready for use. We were fascinated watching them build a house as they don't seem to use nails, every piece of wood is slotted and cut into the next piece. Once back in the village we visited a house to look at some of the embroidered costumes. The lady who owned them insisted I tried one on which was fun though I know she was hoping I would buy one. I didn't though the English lady we had met on the Li River bargained a costume down to an embarrassingly low price (she collected fabrics and really put the lady under a bit of pressure to sell). Jerry and I left once she started bargaining hard as we felt very uncomfortable. That evening we spent a very enjoyable night out on the terrace of the guesthouse - eating, drinking and talking in the moonlight with the other two couples who were staying there. Next morning an older Australian couple in their late sixties came to the guesthouse for breakfast. They were staying further down the hill and had been travelling independently around China for a month. They owned a cattle property in Cape York. The family who owned the house where they were staying spoke no English at all (our family didn't either but had a menu with English translations which made ordering food a little easier) and they had decided not to eat breakfast where they had slept. The night before when they indicated to the lady of the house that they would eat chicken by pointing at one of her hens she promptly grabbed it and killed it in front of them! The chicken was then boiled and served to them without anything else to acompany it - no rice or vegetables. They said it wasn't the best meal they had eaten in China.

We had a very quiet day just wandering around the houses and reading on the terrace, enjoying the view. We regreted that we had booked plane tickets and had to leave late that afternoon. We could very easily have stayed there longer. However we had ordered and paid for a taxi to collect us and drive us to the airport at Guilin for our flight to Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province. This time we made sure we paid the 5 yuan each to get our suitaces carried out, though Jerry decided that carrying a suitcase on his shoulders looked like fun and gave it a go. The women had great smiles and were very strong. I guess they love having the extra income that tourists will bring to their village. I added to it by paying another 5 yuan to a lady so that she would let out her hair - it was very long and very glossy. Our taxi was waiting at the gate and we sadly left the area. This area is close to Guizhou Province and that province, plus northern Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces are areas in China that we have decided to return to in the next few years. It is still very much underdeveloped, full of minority villages and with spectacular scenery. We had a very comfortable two and half hour trip to the airport for the grand total of 250 yuan (AUD $ 40). What a luxury it would be to be able to afford to travel all over China (or any country) by taxi....

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Photos

Stone steps up the terraces
In every direction you could see these stone steps lining the many terraces.

Village women
The minority women in this area never cut their hair - as well they wear their mother's hair after here death attached to their own hair style.

Mum's hair on the windowsill!
Visiting one of the village houses to look at the amazing stitchwork of their traditional dress.

Yes, I do have legs!
For all those people who have never seen me in a dress! This is the traditional costume of the Zhuang minoority group.

Prepared to leave this world.
All the houses had large coffiins outside them - it is obviuosly part of their culture to always have one ready.

The women's hairstyle.
Not a brilliant photo but it shows how they wear their hair (and mum's) wound around their head. They all have long earlobes from heavy silver earrings.